And first of all, let us point out one special feature which belongs to all the children of God without exception. It is a very simple, but a very blessed feature. If we do not possess it in some degree, it is most certain we are not of the heavenly race; but if we do possess it, it is just as certain that we are, and we may, therefore, without any difficulty or reserve, “declare our pedigree.” Now what is this feature? what is this great family characteristic? Our Lord Jesus Christ supplies the answer. He tells us that “Wisdom is justified of _all_ her children.” (Luke vii. 35; Matt. xi. 19.) All the children of Wisdom, from the days of Abel down to the present moment, have been marked by this great family trait. There is not so much as a single exception. All God’s children—all the sons of Wisdom have always exhibited, in some degree, this moral feature—they have justified God.
Let the reader consider this. It may be he finds it hard to understand what is meant by justifying God; but a passage or two of holy Scripture will, we trust, make it quite plain. We read in Luke vii. that “all the people that heard Jesus, and the publicans, _justified God_, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.” (Ver. 29, 30.) Here we have the two generations brought, as it were, face to face. The publicans justified God and condemned themselves: the Pharisees justified themselves and judged God. The former submitted to the baptism of John—the baptism of repentance: the latter refused that baptism—refused to repent—refused to humble and to judge themselves.
Here we have the two great classes into which the whole human family has been divided, from the days of Abel and Cain down to the present day; and here, too, we have the simplest possible test by which to try our “pedigree.” Have we taken the place of self-condemnation? have we bowed in true repentance before God? This is to justify God. The two things go together—yea, they are one and the same. The man who condemns himself justifies God; and the man who justifies God condemns himself. On the other hand, the man who justifies himself judges God; and the man who judges God justifies himself.
Thus it stands in every case. And be it observed that the very moment we take the ground of repentance and self-judgment, God takes the ground of a Justifier. God always justifies those who condemn themselves. All His children justify Him, and He justifies all His children. The moment David said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the answer was, “The Lord hath put away thy sin.” Divine forgiveness follows, with the most intense rapidity, human confession.
Hence it follows that nothing can be more foolish than for any one to justify himself, inasmuch as God must be justified in His sayings, and overcome when He is judged. (Comp. Ps. li. 4; Rom. iii. 4.) God must have the upper hand in the end, and then all self-justification shall be seen in its true light. The wisest thing, therefore, is to condemn ourselves. This is what all the children of Wisdom do. Nothing is more characteristic of the true members of Wisdom’s family than the habit and spirit of self-judgment. Whereas, on the other hand, nothing so marks all those who are not of this family as a spirit of self-vindication.
These things are worthy of our most earnest attention. Nature will blame any thing and every thing, any one and every one, but itself; but where grace is at work, there is ever a readiness to judge self, and take the lowly place. This is the true secret of blessing and peace. All God’s children have stood on this blessed ground, exhibited this lovely moral trait, and reached this grand result. We cannot find so much as a single exception in the entire history of Wisdom’s happy family; and we may safely say that if the reader has been led, in truth and reality, to own himself lost—to condemn himself—to take the place of true repentance, then is he, in very deed, one of the children of Wisdom, and he may therefore, with boldness and decision, “declare his pedigree.”